Industrial Revolution

Arnold Toynbee makes
an essay text named "The Chief features of the Industrial Revolution" to
analyze and give judgments to that important historical phenomenon.

His
argumentation starts with a statement in which he defines the essence of the
Industrial Revolution. It's a process which brought sensitive cases, according
to Toynbee it did not produce well-being even if it produced wealth. That
process involved the global context.

He provides a
definition of the Industrial Revolution which is a substitution of the medieval
regulations of the market with the system of the law of the prices in the
market which are determined by the demand and offer.

After that
Toynbee discusses the consequences of that process on the economical sphere. In
fact on that period growth two great systems of thought: economic science and
socialism. In order to support his point he makes examples to demonstrate his
point referring to four works by four economists.

The first one is
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations( 1776). On that work Adam Smith analyzes the
causes of wealth and not well-being. He's interested in finding out how the
wealth of the nation id made.

The second work
he quotes is Malthus Essay on Population (1798). The author is interested in
explain and analyze the causes of poverty that according to Malthus, are the
result of a great growth of population ( theory of population). Foods which
were product can't satisfy all the needs of people because if the wealth
produced is not equally distributed some people die of starvation. The wages
are low and they can't buy food.

Third example is
Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation ( 1817).Ricardo studies
how wealth are distributed.

The last work
Toynbee quotes is John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy published
in 1848, age in which "born" Mark's Capital in London. He understand that if
the State does not regulate the laws of market, a lot of people would be poor.
So the state should settle the market laws. The interest of John Stuart Mill's work
is to finding out a possible solution for a more equally and fair distribution
of goods, to reduce differences between social classes.

The books that
Toynbee quotes are examples of this process of development that he makes in
order to support his explanation.

In the third
paragraph Toynbee illustrates the main facts of the Industrial Revolution which
in particular are the growth of population and the agricultural revolution.

As regard the
growth of population, it means that thanks to a better and greater production
and distribution of goods, people, generally, can live longer. To support his
argumentation author uses quantity data.

As concerns the
Agricultural Revolution, a lot of people are unemployed in the country because
there is a revolution in the way of growing crops. A degree in the agrarian
population.

The three most
effective causes of that agricultural Revolution are connected to the
destruction of common-field system of cultivation, the enclosures and the
consolidation of small parts into large.

Then Arnold
Toynbee says that in a long way when people speak about the Industrial
Revolution they may be focus their attention on the manufactory industry while
he says that the manufactory industry is as important as is the revolution in
the agricultural fields.

After that
Toynbee quotes the most important advancements like the breed of cattle and the
rotation of crops.

There's also a
great quantity of new inventions and tools that make work easier and increase
the industry, in particular the cotton one. The most important is the
steam-engine followed by the power-loom, the spinning-jenny, the water-frame,
the mule and others.

Therefore the
Revolution had a great impact also on society. For example, the rents in the
countryside rose rapidly. So farmers and landowners made large profits, became
richer and improved their social status. Meanwhile in the cities, the
conditions of the labourers were miserable because of the high prices in
opposition to their low wages and the fluctuations of trades.

There was a great difference in life's
conditions also between the new class of capitalists and the workers. The
former made enormous fortunes even if they didn't take part in the process of production,
while the latter had to work hard for a little wage. This fact had consequences
on the relations between the class of capitalists and the one of workers: they
were linked only by money interests and not by human relations ( being the
workers almost unknown by their masters). This led to a class conflict.

History and, in
particular, the English Industrial Revolution show us that wealth doesn't
really mean well-being for everyone. In order to avoid such social
discrepancies, the supervision of the government on free competition and trade
is necessary.